The 2025 Worshipful Company of Butchers (WCB) City Meat Lecture took place at Butchers’ Hall on 26th November, with guest speaker Professor Chris Elliott OBE giving a lecture on the role of livestock and meat in a modern society.
Professor Chris Elliott addressed the annual WCB City Meat Lecture with a thought-provoking speech titled “Is there a role for livestock and meat in a modern society?” His lecture was followed by a panel discussion chaired by WCB Court Assistant Stuart Roberts with Baroness Minette Batters and Jez Fredenburgh.
Founder of the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University, Belfast, Professor Elliott is a world expert on food security and acts as a senior scientific advisor on food safety and authenticity to a number of UN agencies. He led the independent review of Britain’s food system following the 2013 horsemeat scandal and is a recipient of the Winston Churchill Fellowship.
Baroness Minette Batters runs her tenanted family farm in Wiltshire and was president of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) from 2018-2024 and was appointed by Defra earlier this year to lead the Farm Profitability Review.
Jez Fredenburgh has worked in food, farming and environmental communications for 15 years and is now a senior analyst on the UK food system and climate at the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit.
Discussing the future of livestock and meat
Master Gwyn Howells greeted guests at the lecture before Roberts introduced the event and invited Professor Elliott to the stage.
Describing himself as an outsider to the industry looking in, Professor Elliott started the lecture by setting out his intention to focus on what the food landscape will look like for the industry in 2050, a time when predictions say the world population will peak at nine billion people. Professor Elliott highlighted that many countries, the UK not included, have food strategies looking forward to this date, and that effecting real change in the industry will take this long.
Referencing a speech made by the highly regarded thought leader and “food futurologist” Jack Bobo, he said that every story needs a villain and currently when we talk about the food system, that villain is meat. He moved on to examine the case, covering issues surrounding sustainability and so-called ultra-processed foods, looking at the impact of the Eat-Lancet report and discussing the threats that may come from alternative proteins.
On the subject of alternative proteins, Professor Elliott downplayed the prospect of either plant-based or cultured meat encroaching on the market but flagged fermentation as the likely challenger to the industry. Professor Elliott also raised the topic of nitrites in meat processing, an issue that has recently seen him go head-to-head with the Food Standards Agency (FSA).
The stage was set for a lively panel discussion, and it did not disappoint. Addressing the issues and answering questions from the floor, Baroness Batters, Fredenburgh and Professor Elliott brought different perspectives to the debate and, although they clashed at times, the frank back and forth provided an excellent forum to examine the issues.
